What does it take to become a professional gamer?

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When young Australians today set their sights on becoming a sporting hero – they’re probably not trying to be the next Ricky Ponting or Gary Ablett. Instead, it’s names like “Azr”, “Loserfruit”, and “DickStacy” that are more likely to appear – all professional video gamers known by millions of fans in the digital world. The worldwide phenomenon of esports (professional, competitive video gaming) is becoming a dream career for the new generation.

To get to that stage, regional esports leagues like the ESL ANZ Championships are a key stepping stone in the journey to professionalism and taking a career in gaming full-time. Players in leagues like the ANZ Champs compete for prize-pools of 10’s of thousands of dollars, with matches broadcast across the world to hundreds of thousands of fans each week.

We sat down with some of the top figures competing in the ANZ Champs to see what advice they’d give to aspiring professional gamers:

Peter “BLITZ” Athanasatos – In-Game leader for AVANT Gaming


How did you get started in esports?

I used to play Counter-Strike for fun and then a few months in thought I could get quite good at it so I gave it a shot. I’ve always played video games periodically while growing up but this was my first one I tried to take more seriously.

Since you started playing competitively, what’s your most memorable moment?
It would have to be taking a map of FNATIC at IEM Sydney 2019. It was quite surreal and I just remember thinking “did we actually just win first map?”. It was our team’s first international event so I thought it was pretty awesome.

Ricardo “Rickeh” Mulholland – Player for ORDER


How often do you practice?

As a team we spend up to two hours server and discussion where we go over things then normally play 3-4 scrims a night. I believe solo practice is different for every person. For me personally I tend to play death match for warm up and retake from time to time.

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Tyler “Tucks” Reilly – Coach for the Chiefs Esports Club

Do you have any techniques to prepare your team mentally before a game?
Since I have joined on as coach at the start of the year, a big focus of ours has been mental. How we deal with pressure and individual mental preparation. Each individual has their own routine they go through before a game to make sure it’s as similar to our day to day environment as it can be.

The ESL ANZ Champs is supported by Western Union, for more information, visit the official website at pro.eslgaming.com/anz.

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4.5/5
4.5/5

Rating as of 11 September 2020.

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